Max Verstappen fastest in opening practice at Abu Dhabi F1 finale
The Red Bull driver posted a 1m25.009s around the revised Yas Marina Circu🉐it to head Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas by 0.196s at the top of the timesheets, while championship rival Hamilton was third-quickest.
Hamilton had managed to get within 0.033s of Verstappen’s benchmark but had his best lap time deleted for track limits at the final cಌorner, leaving him 0.346s adrift of the Dutchman.💯
Both drivers head into the last round of the season🌱 level on points, setting up a tantalising winner-t💦akes-all contest in the Abu Dhabi finale.
Ve🎉rstappen’s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez pipped Yuki Tsunoda to the fourth-fastest time, with the AlphaTauri racer complet♚ing the top five.
Fernando Alonso briefly topped FP1 but🌳 eventually slipped back to sixth for Alpine, ahead of Pier🌠re Gasly’s AlphaTauri.
Next up came the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in eighth and ninth, while Sebastian V♈ettel rounded out top-10 for Aston Martin, just under a second off the pace.
The four-time world champion saved a big spin coming out of the hotel section in the closing momen🌠ts of F🌄P1.
Standing in for Williams regular George R🌊ussell duri﷽ng the final first practice session of the season, Jack Aitken outpaced Nicholas Latifi by just 0.006s.
FP2 will take place in more representative conditions under the lights that will be r💎eplicated in qualifying and the g﷽rand prix itself.
Lewis reꦰgularly attends Grands Prix for ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on the action from the g🌳round, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
